"Damnit!" Izzy followed Dave across the room, clearly irked.

"So you connected with Tracy in the woods behind the cabin." Dave said. "Right?"

Uh-oh. Jenk looked at Lindsey. This wasn't going to be good.

Lindsey met his eyes, then looked from Izzy to Dave. "That was one of the potential plans, yeah, but...No, we never even got into position."

"Shit!" Izzy said. "Fucking shit!"

"When those shots were fired," Lindsey continued, "we hunkered down, intending to investigate, but before we could, we got the game over notice. At which point we immediately moved back toward Jacquette's squad. They were at the front of the cabin."

"What was one of the potential plans?" Jenk asked her. For Tracy to go into the woods...?

"Dave here was working for the good guys," Izzy told him. "He told Tracy to leave by the back door while he created a diversion."

"So Tracy went out the back door." Jenk repeated. Fucking shit, indeed. "But no one was there to collect her."

"She must've left right before we got the call," Dave said. "Or maybe even during it? I was reaching for my phone, I didn't see her."

Lindsey crossed to the door in question. "This is the door she was supposed to use?" she asked, even as she opened it and scanned the ground outside.

"Guys, we've got to go." Gillman appeared, like the angel of doom.

"There's a clear trail," Lindsey announced. "Leading due north, back toward the state road."

"It's cold out there," Dave said, ever the voice of reason. "How far is she going to go before she realizes something's wrong and turns around?"

"Yeah, but this girl's not a camper," Izzy said.

"Even someone experienced could turn around, shift to the right or left a few degrees and miss the cabin by a mile," Jenk pointed out. He couldn't believe this. "How did this happen? After the lessons we all allegedly learned from Lindsey?"

"Guys," Gilligan said. He tapped his watch.

Izzy lit into him. "Do you not understand that Tracy is missing?" He quickly shifted gears. "Yo, you were in the cabin with us. Did you see her leave?"

"I didn't," Gillman admitted. "But weren't you standing right next to her?"

"I was in front of her," Izzy said. "I was focused on Crazy-Ass Dave."

"Nice to know I'm so well respected." Dave sniffed.

Lindsey knocked on the door to get their attention. "Dave, please go and find Tom. And Decker, too. And all the flashlights you can round up." She looked at Izzy and Jenk. "Go. We'll find her. I promise. I'll call you when we do. It'll probably be before you even hit the airfield."

"I'm going to make sure Koehl knows about this." Izzy bounded off.

"Come on," Gillman said.

But still Jenk hesitated.

Lindsey lifted her right hand. "I swear, I won't go to sleep tonight until I'm sure Tracy is safe and secure. Go save the world."

Jenk nodded. "Call me."

"Better yet, I'll have Tracy call you herself," Lindsey told him, then turned to meet Tom, who was coming into the cabin. "Sir, we've got a little problem."

"I don't know Tracy that well," Gillman said, as he and Jenk headed at a jog back toward the waiting trucks. "But seriously, how far could she have gone?"

Tracy finally reached the road.

There was no one there to meet her, and the little bit of scared she'd been harboring ever since she'd left the cabin turned into a serious dose of frightened.

She tried to bolster her sagging spirits by remembering Izzy's insulting words. She's completely unskilled. Sure, he'd meant it in terms of counterterrorism, but it was also very clearly a personal dig, obviously referring to last night's total fiasco.

God, she was still so embarrassed. Mortified. Yeah, she'd had a lot of tequila, but how could she have been so totally stupid and naive as to believe all those things Izzy'd said?

She'd believed him because she'd wanted to. Because she'd never had sex before with someone she didn't love. Because she'd been temporarily blinded by the hormones rushing through her system.

Then reality had reared its ugly head. And it wasn't just her own stupidity that stared back at her. She realized this morning that she was willing to marry Lyle simply so she wouldn't have to be alone anymore. She'd thought it was his money she wanted-the financial security. But apparently it wasn't-since she'd been so instantly willing to give that up for some sailor who'd said words she'd wanted to hear.

He'd said words she was starving to hear.

God, Izzy must think she was an idiot.

And yet, she'd managed to walk right out of that cabin, right out from under his enormously unattractive nose. He was probably being taken to task for it right this very moment.

Which was nice to consider, but not as nice as sitting in front of a fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate would've been.

It was unbelievably cold, and Tracy wrapped the jacket more tightly around her, covering her ears with her mittened hands. She had no idea which way to walk, since the road was deserted and there were no lights in either direction and...

Wait, what was that?

Tracy squinted and...

Yes, hello, those were headlights coming toward her. She most definitely was on the verge of being saved.

She'd get back to the motel, hours ahead of them all. They'd rush in, terrified that she was still out on the mountain, frozen to death, and she'd be all like, "Oh, you thought I was unskilled? Really? You must be so cold, would you like some of the chicken soup that I made from scratch while I was waiting...?"

She jumped up and down, waving her arms, and sure enough, the car slowed to a stop. It was similar to the other cars she'd seen here in the wilderness of New Hampshire-ancient, but still seeming to run well. Not that she cared, as long as the heater worked.

The window went down to reveal a man, alone behind the wheel. "What are you doing out here," he said, in that weird twangy accent that marked some people as being from Maine. Not all of them, though. Her college roommate, Mindy, had been from Bangor, and she'd talked like a normal person. But her father sounded as if someone had tried to clone a Kennedy, and the experiment had gone terribly, horribly wrong. Yuh cahn't get thah from he-yah instead of you can't get there from here.

"I was out hiking," Tracy said now, which was not entirely untrue, "and I got separated from my friends. We're staying at the Motel-A-Rama in Darlington. Are you going anywhere even remotely near there?"

"There's a bus station that isn't too far out of my way," the man in the car told her. "Hop on in."

The sound of someone pounding on the door woke Sophia from a restless sleep.

"Sophia! Open up!" It was Dave.

The clock radio said it was barely ten. It felt more like 3:00 A.M.

She threw back the blankets, which knocked a pile of books onto the floor, and staggered to the door. It was about a million degrees in the room, and the heater was still cranking.

She opened the door. For the first time since she'd gotten soaked out at the hunting lodge she was grateful for the blast of frigid air.

Dave pushed past her. "Is Tracy here?"

"No," she said, fanning herself with the door as she turned to look at him as he strode purposefully into her bathroom. "Well, I don't think so. I was asleep."

"Shit," Dave said. "Shit."

Apparently Tracy was AWOL again. "Have you tried the bar that's halfway between here and Happy Hills? I'm not sure exactly where it is, but Izzy probably knows." As she closed the door, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was doing its Bride of Frankenstein thing, and she tried to tame it, pulling it back and searching on the dresser for a scrunchee.

"Is it possible she came back while you were sleeping?" Dave asked. "Maybe she came in quietly and-"

"Not a chance," she said, because on the dresser were two room keys. Her own and Tracy's. She held them up for him to see.

"Terrific," he said, heading for the door.

Sophia stopped him, one hand still holding back her hair. "Wait," she said. "What's going on?"

"Tracy's missing," he told her. "She left the cabin, and Lindsey tracked her all the way to the road. But that was it. End of trail."

"Are you sure this isn't just another one of Tom's games?" she asked.

"Absolutely," he told her. "The SEALs got the call-they're already gone. And if the rest of us mobilized right now, we could catch a flight to California before the bad weather hits."

Sophia had spent some time this evening watching the Weather Channel. There was a huge storm heading directly for them. It was expected to hit the coast and stall. The airports were going to start to close, probably as early as tomorrow morning. If the Troubleshooters were delayed, they'd be snowed in. Possibly for days.

Being snowed in was one thing if they were training, another entirely if they were sitting in cheap motel rooms, twirling their thumbs.

Tom was not a thumb twirler-getting home to his wife and baby son would be a priority for him.

"Tracy probably got a ride," Sophia deducted. "Someone stopped and picked her up."

"I hope so." Dave didn't sound convinced. "Lindsey and Decker walked the road, looking for signs of her in either direction. Ninety minutes, and there wasn't a single car. We're afraid she went back into the woods, to try to return to the cabin." He gently pushed her aside and opened the door. "I've got to go talk to Stella and Rob, see if they've seen her. Maybe she came back here and didn't want to disturb you."

"Dave, wait-"

But he closed the door behind him.

Sophia quickly threw on clothes and her boots-which were finally dry. Her jacket was, too, but she couldn't find her hat, so she borrowed one of Tracy's and pocketed her key.

The night was bitterly cold. If Tracy were in the woods, if she'd gotten lost...Sophia hurried down to the restaurant, but Dave was already coming back out.

"This is a total nightmare," he told her. "I'm the one who told Tracy to leave the cabin. But I didn't have time to give her the complete instructions, tell her to look for Koehl's team..."

Dave had told her earlier that Tom had given him an additional role to play-that of undercover operative who'd infiltrated the terrorist cell.

"I was trying to be a hotshot," he admitted now. "Get the hostage to safety and single-handedly wipe out the terrorists. Instead, I put Tracy into danger. If she doesn't keep moving...In this cold...If she fell or hurt herself..." His eyes were anguished. "She'll freeze to death before dawn."

"I'll go with you," Sophia said. "We'll find that bar. I bet you anything she's there."

But before they reached Dave's vehicle, the rest of the team's SUVs and trucks pulled into the parking lot, stones crunching beneath their tires. Everyone was driving just a little too fast.

And Tom and Decker both hopped out before their vehicles came to a complete stop. Tess Bailey, Troubleshooters' computer specialist, was right behind them. "I've got my computer set up in my room," she told them. "Do you want me to bring it down to the restaurant?"

"Did you find her?" Sophia called.

"It'll take less time if we go up there," Tom said. "If you don't mind."

"Of course not," Tess said, running up the stairs to the second floor. "Just let me make sure Jimmy's dressed."

Decker answered Sophia. "Haven't found her yet," he said. "But we will very shortly."

"Of course," Dave said, slapping his forehead. "The sensors in the jackets. Tracy was wearing one, so..."

Sophia understood. The sensors that identified participants as dead or alive were part of a computer program. Apparently they could use that same program as something of a tracking device, to pinpoint Tracy.

Or at least her jacket.

"Thank God someone's thinking clearly." Dave was so excited, he actually started to dance. He grabbed her and swung her around.

As Sophia laughed at his exuberance, she kept her thoughts to herself. She didn't want to take away his hope, but she'd had lunch while Tess had organized the team that put up all those temporary satellite towers earlier today. Apparently, even with the additional towers, there were still large areas of what she'd called "dead zones."

"What are you doing out here?" Decker asked Sophia. "Dave, what the hell...? Get her inside. Now." He followed Tom up the stairs.

Dave let her go, but still danced in a circle around her.

Up on the second level, Tess had unlocked the door to her room. "Great," she said, sounding as if it were anything but. "He's not even here. Okay, come on in-please ignore the dirty laundry."

Down in the parking lot, Alyssa Locke had opened up the back of the van, revealing piles of their training equipment.

"I need help getting this unloaded," Alyssa called, motioning them over. She put a pile of jackets similar to the one Tracy was wearing into Sophia's arms. "This should go into the storage room, off the kitchen. We'll organize it and pack it up later." She gave another armload to Dave, whose relief was still making him grin.

"Some people say I love you," he whispered to Sophia as they headed inside. "Others say Dave, what the hell...?"

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Please don't start."

"I'm just saying," Dave said, holding the door for her. "Just making note of what sure felt to me like, oh...I don't know...jealousy? Maybe we should dance together more often."

"Oh, was that what that was?" she asked him. "Dancing?"

Dave laughed. "That's so mean. I'm a good dancer. All those exotic embassy parties. All those exotic ambassadors' wives? Decker should be worried. You might want to mention to him, just in passing, that I actually know how to tango. Or maybe if you start sighing"-he demonstrated-"every time you say my name."

"How much coffee have you had tonight?" She led the way into the kitchen.

"Too much," he admitted, as she turned on the light in the storage room. He waited while she put her load of jackets onto the floor, then added his to the top. "I'm just really glad we're going to find her. Tracy."